Superhero Video Throwdown: Strawberry Swing vs. Bboy Joker

The Internet can be a very cool thing indeed. You’ll see thing you’d probably never have seen pre-Internet (thanks Al Gore!). For instance, in my various surfing expeditions, I ran across the following two videos, both featuring superheroes but in different, yet interesting, ways.

First up we have the music video (ah, the memories of the ’80s are thick) for Coldplay’s new single “Strawberry Swing”. Now, I’m not a huge Coldplay fan, but check out this video! It features a superhero on a mission to save the girl, almost everything animated in chalk. Awesome! For more on how this was accomplished (Aside from a lot of time and chalk) you can read an interview with Shynola, the guys behind the video.

As I said, I’m not a Coldplay fan, but this one is growing on me and I’d probably never would have heard it if I hadn’t seen the video…

Speaking of the ’80s, the dance style called “Breaking” (2: Electric Boogaloo!) seemed to be everywhere. Those who practiced this dance style were/are called “b-boys” or “b-girls”. So of course, you can guess what this next video is about just from its name: Bboy Joker. That’s right, the Joker (Heath Ledger version) challenges Batman to a breaking competition. But there’s a catch: You choose which character to ‘play’ and engage in the dance off. You can watch the video below to get a feel, but you really need to go to Youtube to play this right.

What’s cool about this, aside from the terrific stop-motion work, is the attempt to use Youtube’s features to create something new. If you’ve tried playing you know what I mean. What this reminds me of is two things: the old arcade game Dragon’s Lair and the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The really cool thing is now anyone with a camera and a bit of skill and time can create something that is just as good as either of those. Could you imagine a Choose Your Own Adventure style webseries? That would be pretty cool.

I like both of these videos, but for different reasons. If I had to pick, I’d probably go with Coldplay’s video, only because I can listen to it without having to do anything.